The Turn Towards ‘The Biosocial’ in Epigenetics: Ontological, Epistemic and Socio-Political Considerations

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_10327126E325
Type
A part of a book
Publication sub-type
Chapter: chapter ou part
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The Turn Towards ‘The Biosocial’ in Epigenetics: Ontological, Epistemic and Socio-Political Considerations
Title of the book
Integrative Approaches in Environmental Health and Exposome Research
Author(s)
Luca Chiapperino
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN
9783031284311
9783031284328
Publication state
Published
Issued date
13/06/2023
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Editor
Giroux Elodie, Merlin Francesca, Fayet Yohan
Language
english
Abstract
This chapter critically scrutinises the relevance of ‘biosocial’ ideas in relation to epigenetics. Its purpose is to distinguish and characterise the concept’s ontological, epistemic and socio-political dimensions, as well as to identify the challenges and gaps that keep the qualifier ‘biosocial’ away from the methods, facts and policy translations of epigenetic research. The chapter's objective is neither to systematise the concept in a specific definition nor to assess the homogeneity of its uses in the literature. Drawing from the current debate on this matter in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and the practices of epigenetic scientists, its goal is to highlight the nuances, gaps and practical changes that could favour interdisciplinary engagements with ‘the biosocial’. The chapter sets out to contribute to the debate on the incommensurability between epigenetic studies of social-biological transitions in health and the conception of our health as entangled, hybrid and biosocial in STS. The turn towards ‘the biosocial’ in epigenetics presents practitioners, much like social and humanistic critics, with the necessity to go beyond such questions of incommensurability and to give way to a stance privileging a focus on socio-political change in interdisciplinary biosocial experimentations.
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / Careers / 185822
Create date
14/06/2023 10:17
Last modification date
15/06/2023 6:56
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